I'm pretty sure it would be healthy to disable the News & Current Events postings for a while...

I know I can disable it for myself, but I'm thinking more that it is contributing to members taking uncharitable views of one another..

"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" - Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta

'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' - Genesis 3:19

'Some fart freely, some try to hide and silence it. Which one is correct?' - Saegnapha

I appreciate your concern, but staff are across the current situation and are actively assessing the best way forward.

In the meantime, thank you for the reminder that members are welcome to opt out of the News forum, either short-term or long-term. I even did this myself once, for a period of a few months, so welcome others to try the Dhamma Wheel Minus News experience for themselves. Discussion on News has always been permitted at this forum... the only difference is that it used to occur in the Lounge. Part of the reason for the separation was to allow members to better customize their Dhamma Wheel experience, as required.

But no, it's highly unlikely a section will be shut down altogether due to any one individual's inability to abide by the rules of that section. Bad behaviour won't be rewarded with shutdowns...

I appreciate your concern, but staff are across the current situation and are actively assessing the best way forward.

In the meantime, thank you for the reminder that members are welcome to opt out of the News forum, either short-term or long-term. I even did this myself once, for a period of a few months, so welcome others to try the Dhamma Wheel Minus News experience for themselves. Discussion on News has always been permitted at this forum... the only difference is that it used to occur in the Lounge. Part of the reason for the separation was to allow members to better customize their Dhamma Wheel experience, as required.

But no, it's highly unlikely a section will be shut down altogether due to any one individual's inability to abide by the rules of that section. Bad behaviour won't be rewarded with shutdowns...

Metta,
Paul.

Fair enough, I also don't like the idea of shutting it down. I just wish the energy people put into that forum was directed elsewhere. It has a compulsion with a bad flavour, to be right, to win.

"Does Master Gotama have any position at all?"

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origination, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are fabrications...such is consciousness, such its origination, such its disappearance.'" - Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta

'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.' - Genesis 3:19

'Some fart freely, some try to hide and silence it. Which one is correct?' - Saegnapha

If you simply "followed the bouncing ball", then Brexit would not have happened, Trump would not have won, Hollywood and the US Parliament wouldn't have turned out to be a cesspit of sexual depravity & corruption, and so on. Yet, these events occurred.

These events during 2016/17 have been unsettling for some, particularly whoever did not have the prescience to discern the conditions which would lead to such circumstances. It is understandable people may be scrambling to find their feet amidst such shifting sands. That confusion warrants sympathy, and there's scope for understanding that some people will need to adjust to this new reality, but when that confusion turns into lashing out, then that unrestrained aversion arguably warrants contempt. Where that aversion causes people to breach this site's Terms of Service, we will step in as needed.

Fair enough, I also don't like the idea of shutting it down. I just wish the energy people put into that forum was directed elsewhere. It has a compulsion with a bad flavour, to be right, to win.

If the News and Politics section would not exist (anymore), that compulsion -- that combative attitude -- would probably just find a new way of expressing itself. Such as by making the discussion of Dhamma topics more authoritarian and competitive. This meaning that people who by their own admission are nowhere near stream-entry would nevertheless assume they can speak with authority on all matters Buddhism. You can see this happen in Buddhist establishments where they don't have a news and politics section, or in how some individuals approach talking about the Dhamma (in that they don't talk about news and politics, but talk about the Dhamma in a strongly authoritarian, competitive, domineering manner).

Given this, I actually prefer there is a news and politics section of the forum, so that people can blow off some steam. I think that if all that negative energy were to be directed into Dhamma discussions, the forum would become unbearable.

However:

I just wish the energy people put into that forum was directed elsewhere.

Since this is a Buddhist forum, it could benefit from being more Buddhist!